


"Cradling Someone In Their Arms"

by AspiringAuthor29



Series: Bad Things Happen To Spencer Reid Bingo [4]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: (Not actually but he might as well be), Broken Bones, Canon-Typical Violence, Concussions, Electrocution, Gen, Hurt Spencer Reid, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Protective David Rossi, Spencer Reid is a Rossi, Spencer Reid is a trouble magnet, Torture, beatings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:00:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28653888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AspiringAuthor29/pseuds/AspiringAuthor29
Summary: Rossi didn't realize how much Reid meant to him until a vengeful Unsub is the one to show him. But at what cost?
Relationships: Spencer Reid & David Rossi
Series: Bad Things Happen To Spencer Reid Bingo [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2003854
Comments: 23
Kudos: 167





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the longest one-shot I have ever written. It really got away from me, like, I'm pretty sure it's chillin' over in Greece eating some yummy baklava. Anyway, this is major Reid whumping, so I hope you enjoy and don't forget to comment!

Rossi couldn't help but groan as he came to, cracking his eyes open and having to squint even against the dim lighting of the cement room. His head was pounding like someone was continuously ramming the back of his skull with a sledgehammer and he had to swallow down nausea when the room swirled and tilted dramatically in response to him trying to push himself up from the ground. Eventually, he managed to work himself into a sitting position but when he tried to stand, he was met with resistance in the form of iron shackles around his wrists, binding him to the wall.

Wait, what happened?

The last thing he remembered was receiving a text from Reid asking him to get a case file from the precinct they were working in before he left and bring it to him at the hotel. He had already left, but not being too far away, he turned the SUV around and headed back to the station. He was so focused on grabbing the kid's file and getting out as quickly as possible that he didn't stop to wonder why the lights in the bullpen area were on.

He did stop, however, when he saw the kid himself slumped lifeless on the ground, a trail of blood slowly leaking down from behind his head and across his forehead. His hand automatically flew to his gun, but the weapon never made it out of its holster before he felt a fiery pain in the back of his head and the world went dark, Reid and the rest of the precinct fading from view.

_Reid._

The kid had been knocked out before him. Where was he?

He flung his head around so fast that his vision momentarily went blurry and he slammed his eyes shut. When the spell had passed, he opened his eyes and took another look around, though this time considerably slower.

As he had previously observed, the room was made of solid cement with only a single, windowless, wooden door to the left and the floor being of packed dirt. It was illuminated by a single bulb hanging from the middle of the ceiling, and while dim, still allowed him to see the room with perfect clarity. It wasn't very big at all, probably only ten feet by ten feet. The rest of the room was empty aside from…he thought he felt his heart thud to a stop right then and there. Because directly across from him, shackled from his wrists in the same manner as himself, head lulled on his chest, and a trail of dried blood tracing down his face was the agent he had desperately hoped was only a victim of circumstance and had been left behind. How he had failed to notice him until that moment Rossi didn't know. All that mattered right then was figuring out how to get Reid out as soon as possible.

It still surprised him how much the young doctor had grown on him since his arrival back at the BAU less than three years prior. He didn't work well with a team to begin with and finding out that the team he was expected to was made up of a bunch of kids in terms of experience, well, needless to say, he hadn't had high expectations, especially when Reid had started talking about his books nonstop. While he almost immediately saw that these so called "kids" as he had labelled them were anything but, it took him a while longer to see what was so special about the genius that they kept him around. In Rossi's eyes, he was a nervous, fidgety kid who didn't understand social cues, drank way too much coffee flavored sugar, and talked way too much for his own good.

Sure, he understood how useful the kid was to the team with his IQ and his plethora of talents when it came to profiling and psychology, but he just could not for the life of him understand why he was a field agent, let alone how he carried a gun, or most of all, why people shielded him and seemed to have some sort of protective instinct take over in his presence.

It wasn't until he had seen the kid talk down Owen Savage, unarmed, and purposefully put himself between the Unsub and the police officers did he start to understand. In that moment, when Owen had had an assault rifle leveled on Reid, he had felt a strange surge of protectiveness that he often saw in the rest of the team when it came to protecting Reid. He couldn't explain it, but the kid had managed to worm his way into his heart. It just seemed to be the kind of effect he had on people.

Since then, he had come to see why Reid was truly a member of the team. He was more than the eccentric genius he had only seen at first. He goofy and childish and could be pretty sarcastic when the mood hit him right. But more than that, he was kind and selfless and one of the bravest people he had ever met. He was also sweet and compassionate and had the ability to empathize with a freakin' brick wall. He was also so naive when it came to pop culture and modern technology that it was adorable, and Rossi found himself being sucked into Reid's charm just like everyone else. Now, he was like the son he had never had, and he would do anything to keep him safe. He hated seeing anyone on the team in pain, but God, it was so much worse when it was Reid.

He startled slightly when a quiet groan from said man resounded. Rossi turned his attention to the boy and called out to him softly, knowing that he no doubt had one hell of a headache if his own was anything to go off of.

"Kid? Hey, look up. Open your eyes Reid."

Spencer slowly obeyed and squinted in discomfort. "R'ssi?" he questioned in a slurred, confused tone.

"Yeah, it's me kid. How're you feeling?" He inwardly cringed at the slurring in the kid's words. That combined with the fact that he had been knocked out first yet woke up second was concerning Rossi. They had obviously hit the doctor harder than himself.

He groaned once again when he shifted his head and tried to reach up with his hands to touch the trail of blood matted in his hair. Of course, he was met with resistance and it seemed that it was right then he realized their situation. His eyes flew open from their squinty position, and though he did wince at the sudden onslaught of light, his eyes remained firmly open as they took on a look of panic.

"Rossi, where are we?" he demanded, ignoring his question. His face betrayed nothing, but the look in his eyes showing that he was scared, terrified even. And Rossi didn't blame him for a moment. He knew that Reid had been kidnapped once before he returned to the BAU and had been tortured for days, not to mentioned drugged and sent into cardiac arrest. While anyone who didn't know him would think he was keeping his cool, Rossi could see how anxious he was. That was the moment when Rossi's vow to get him out of their alive and protect him at all costs solidified. He knew right then and there that he would die if it meant Reid didn't have to go through that agony once again.

"I don't know kid. But it's going to be okay," Rossi made a point of meeting the genius' eyes.

"Right," Reid replied with a failed attempt at a stoic expression, taking his first look around their jail. "I'd say we're in some sort of root cellar. We're also probably underground judging by the temperature and the dampness in the walls. Wherever we are, the property was probably established sometime before World War II since root cellars dropped out of fashion around then with the arrival of refrigerators."

Despite himself, Rossi gave a small smile. Leave it to Reid to know random facts about root cellars. "Alright," he said, going along with Reid's profiling idea, "What about our Unsub? Considering he opted to knock us out from behind instead of taking us head-on, I'd say our Unsub's either impotent or physically incapable of manhandling two FBI agents."

"They could also be a female or…" Reid trailed off as the lock on the door clicked and it swung open with such a cliched creak that it was almost laughable.

0000

How dare him! How dare Agent Rossi stand there and say they were going to do everything in their power to get the man's wife back. He didn't care, none of them did! He doubted Rossi even gave his son a second thought after that day. He probably went home to his big mansion and drank his expensive scotch, not even caring that his own world had crumbled down around him. His only reason to live, really.

He had vowed all those years ago to get revenge on the man who hadn't gotten there in time, who didn't even seem to care that his son was dead, and it was all his fault. Unfortunately, after years of no disturbances from Rossi, he had slowly started to come to terms with the idea that the opportunity to avenge Anthony was never going to present itself.

That was until he had gone into the station to pick up his jacket, which had been forgotten the previous night when he was taken in for a DUI, and seen him for the first time since that night. He was much older now, but he could never forget the man who was the cause for his baby boy's death. He had overheard Agent Rossi consoling a man whose wife had recently been abducted. He had felt a flare of rage go through him so strongly that it quite literally turned his vision red. He didn't think he had been that angry since the man had ruthlessly tortured and killed sweet little Anthony. He wanted Agent Rossi to feel that same pain, that exact same pain. He didn't want to kill him, oh no, that would be too merciful. He wanted to make him watch as he tortured someone he loved and cared about deeply.

He figured that it might very well be his only opportunity to get back at the agent, so it had to be while they were still in town. He didn't have time to hunt down any of Rossi's actual family, but he figured a team member would do nicely. He had watched as Rossi had left the husband a moment later and headed for a much younger agent, one that couldn't have been much older than his mid to late twenties. This one was tall and cute in the same way he was sure Anthony would have been if he had been able to grow up. The young agent was leaning over a map and started to animatedly explain something to Rossi, his hands and lips moving a mile a minute. Rossi had chuckled, said something that made the younger one shut up and blush, patted his back, and handed him a cup of coffee he had picked up on his way over.

He already knew that Rossi was going to play himself in his game, but right then, he knew he had found his Anthony.

0000

The door swung open and revealed a tall, muscular man around Rossi's age with a clean-shaven face and a graying military-type buzz cut. He had a long, jagged scar running down his right cheek, though judging by how faded it was, it was probably decades old. His left eye was a stormy gray color while the right was an icy blue giving him an inverted Husky look. Behind him, was nothing but a cement staircase leading up, bringing with it sunlight that was almost painful in the dim room.

Both agents immediately turned their attention from their profile, to the Unsub now right in front of them. Reid's eyes, though panicked to keen eyes, scanned over the entire form of the man, no doubt mentally profiling his appearance and cataloguing the information for later. Rossi's eyes on the other hand, almost imperceptibly widened, immediately recognizing their Unsub. It wasn't hard with his eyes and his scar, but it was even easier when he remembered how horribly that case had gone, how guilty he had felt for months afterwards and even then.

He stepped into the room and shut the door behind him, effectively trapping them in once again. Not even sparing Reid a glance, he strode over to Rossi and squatted down until their eyes were barely a foot apart.

"Hello Agent Rossi," he said tersely, a sadistic sneer crossing his features. Rossi stared back unwaveringly, determined not to back down.

"Hello Samuel," Rossi replied right back, not missing a beat. For a moment, Samuel seemed slightly taken aback, obviously not expecting Rossi to remember him, but mere seconds later the sadistic sneer was firmly back in place.

"Ahh, so you do remember me then. You remember how you ruined my life because you weren't good enough to get there in time to save my little boy. How you were too late, and I had to hold him in my arms as he slowly bled to death!" Samuel roared. He brought his hand up in a fist and struck Rossi solidly in the jaw. His head snapped to the side with a grunt and his already concussed head swam dangerously.

The Unsub then sighed and calmed himself, meeting Rossi's eyes once again. "I've hated you for every day of my life since then Rossi. If you had only gotten there a little quicker, done your job just a little better, we wouldn't be in this situation. I doubt you even gave us a second thought once you were back safe and sound in your fancy home in D.C." Even when Reid shifted behind him and groaned, no doubt against his will, Samuel didn't pay him any attention.

Rossi swallowed the horrible feeling that was growing in his stomach. Samuel didn't seem at all interested in Reid, so why was the younger agent even there? Was he just a victim of circumstance and happened to be in the way when Samuel came to get him? Somehow, Rossi highly doubted it, but what he wanted with the kid was slowly filling the older agent with dread as it became more and more apparent how much rage he had in him. It didn't take a profiler to know that he needed to tread lightly if he wanted to keep Samuel from becoming further enraged.

"Samuel, I know that it hurts-"

The profiler was abruptly cut off by another swift punch to his face and a growl of rage. He hissed softly as he felt a line of blood trickle down his jaw line, but there was nothing he could do in the moment.

"You don't know anything!" Samuel bellowed, standing from his crouched position. "You don't know what its like to see your only child mercilessly tortured for days before being shot and left to slowly bleed out! You have _no idea_ what the feels like! The pain and inner turmoil I feel every single second of every single day of my life. The only thing that has kept me from putting a bullet through my head all these years is the hope that one day I would be able to return the favor to you!" As quickly as his moment of rage had come, it was gone and replaced by that same horrible smile. Rossi quickly profiled that the trauma from the events of twenty years ago must have caused him to have a psychotic break, though he wouldn't be surprised if Samuel had been bipolar all along.

"And you know what Agent Rossi, the opportunity has finally presented itself. After my little boy died, I couldn't stand to stay in our town any longer. I had already lost his mother there only days after he was born but losing him too, well, I just couldn't stay. Everywhere I went, I saw him. I could hear his beautiful little laugh in when I walked by the park across the street. I saw his smile in the ice cream parlor uptown. You get the idea. So, I moved here. And I never thought that I would cross paths again with you until I saw you in the police station yesterday and I just knew that this was my chance to make you feel the same pain as I did. And that," he jerked his thumb behind him towards Reid, "Is where the little genius over there comes in."

Rossi blanched when he realized what Samuel was implying. Noticing his expression change, Samuel gave a cold laugh. "Oh, Agent Rossi, you didn't really think that I wanted revenge by killing you, did you? That would have been much too quick. No, you're going to leave here completely fine. It's Spencer over there you should be worried about. And yes, I know who he is. I did my research."

Rossi could see Reid's eyes widen with fear at Samuel's words, but he couldn't dwell on it. He had to figure out a way to get Reid out of the situation and fast.

"Don't do this Samuel. If you want revenge on me, then take your anger out on me, not the kid," he said quickly, though still trying to choose his words carefully. By calling Reid a kid, maybe it would make the paternal instinct in Samuel come back to life and see that Reid was completely innocent in this.

"I understand that you want me to feel the same pain as you but think about Anthony. If you're going to make Spencer take his place, you'll be causing him the same pain. Why would you want someone who's innocent to all of this feel the same unjust pain that Anthony did?"

"Innocent!" Samuel demanded, rage seeping into his voice. "I don't care if he had anything to do with this or not, he's a Fed. You're all the same. You don't care about the people who get left behind to slowly die from their grief!" The man then whirled around so fast that it made Rossi's head spin and slammed the toe of his steel-toed boots into Reid's chest. Despite himself, he cried out in pain and hunched over, hanging limply by his restraints as he gasped through the pain.

"He was only nine years old when Anthony died!" Rossi called out desperately, hating to see Reid in pain and wanting nothing more than to make it stop even though he was virtually powerless to do so. "You say you did your research so you should know that Spencer was only nine when this all happened. He was just a kid!"

"Exactly! Anthony would be the same age! Why's it fair that he," he gestured wildly towards Spencer, "Got to be a normal nine-year-old without a care in the world while Anthony was tortured to death!? Huh!?"

Despite their situation, Rossi couldn't help but see the irony in what the Unsub had just said. Normal kid his ass. If only Samuel knew anything about the kid's real childhood. Maybe he would see that Reid and Anthony weren't that different after all. At least Anthony hadn't gotten beaten by him, his own father.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, we have something to get on with," Samuel said and turned his full attention to Reid. While the kid had gotten much more mature and, if he did say so himself, much stronger in the last few years, it didn't stop the flash of fear that crossed Reid's features. The kid was trying so hard to be brave, but Rossi could see right through him. He was terrified; Rossi himself was too if anyone cared to look, however. Rossi wanted nothing more than to make that look leave his eyes and never come back.

Samuel didn't hesitate to deliver another swift kick to Reid's chest. And another. And another. He kicked and kicked until Rossi swore, he could hear his ribs cracking at each impact from his own position across the room. He kicked until tears of pain were leaking out of Reid's clenched eyes and grunts and moans of pain that cracked Rossi's heart were escaping his usually so well constructed mental walls. The genius may not have looked like it, but if Rossi had to pick out the best compartmentalizer on the team, it would be Reid even before Hotch. To see him to the point where tears were slipping out was really, _really_ bad.

"Stop! Samuel, he isn't Anthony. Hurting him like those people hurt your son isn't going to bring him back. Right now, you're just hurting an innocent kid who had never seen you before in his life until today. Right now, your just as bad as they were!" Rossi yelled, hoping that the last part might strike a nerve somewhere in Samuel and get him to see past his delusions because those delusions terrified Rossi. However, it didn't seem to faze the man beating on the genius.

It hadn't taken him long to figure out Samuel's game plan. He was trying to recreate the horrible case that had gotten Anthony killed. Unfortunately, he had gotten everything down to a tee. Even the room was identical to the one Samuel and his son had been held in once Rossi thought about it. He was taking revenge on Rossi by putting him in his own place so he could feel the same pain he did. Since he had needed an Anthony, he had taken Reid, no doubt seeing the paternal instincts that came over him whenever he was in the kid's vicinity. If he had wanted the perfect Anthony to his Samuel, Reid had been the perfect choice.

Rossi also hadn't failed to notice that the Unsub was perfectly emulating each torturous activity that was done to Anthony on Reid. The MEs report on the boy's body had said that multiple ribs had been shattered from what was probably a steel-toed boot. That was the first thing he mentally checked off his list. He quickly went down the list of things that had been done to Anthony and got increasingly sick as he went along.

Meanwhile, Samuel had seemingly grown bored with breaking Spencer's ribs and moved on to using his face as a punching bag. Rossi couldn't help but flinch with every strike. He could see blood trickling down his chin from his freshly split lip. However, Rossi kept his mouth shut the whole time, knowing that anything he said would only make it worse and he just couldn't do that to Reid. He was already here because of him, he couldn't be the reason his beating was made worse, too. However, he made sure to watch the entire thing, no matter how much he wanted to look away because Reid in pain physically _hurt_ him, and meet Spencer's eyes each time he had the opportunity. He hoped that he could at least offer him the comfort in knowing that he wasn't alone if he couldn't figure a way out of their current situation.

He didn't cry out when Reid's head would whip to the side. He didn't cry out when his head would slam back into the wall behind him with a bone-rattling force. He didn't cry out when the genius' nose broke with a sickening crunch and blood began to gush down his face in a steady stream.

He did cry out, however, when a sudden rough kick to the poor kid's chest, once again, had him coughing up blood and gagging as it lazily dripped out of his mouth. He screamed because the kid was coughing up blood and that meant internal injuries that Rossi couldn't fix on his own if he got the chance. That meant he was this much closer to losing him.

_His_ kid was coughing up blood.

Rossi had never felt such a protective instinct take over him before. Not when he was in the Marines, not when he started the BAU, not even with his own team that was more like family. In that moment, however, he wanted nothing more than to shield Spencer from the horrors of the world, to pull the bloody kid into his arms and rock him and whisper to him until all of his pain went away.

"Stop it!" he found himself screaming. He didn't want to beg, David Rossi did not beg, but if that was what Samuel wanted to stop mercilessly torturing his kid, well then, David Rossi _would_ beg. "Please! He has nothing to do with this. Stop hurting him, please!"

Thankfully, he did stop, though the way he slowly turned to face Rossi showed that he hadn't suddenly become merciful but angrier that Rossi had interrupted him.

"Please? Oh, so you think that asking _nicely_ is going to make this all better? You think that I didn't scream and cry and beg until I was blue in the face? You think that it did me any good? Because let me tell you something David Rossi, you can beg all you want but it won't get you a damn thing and it sure as hell won't save your boy over here!" he roared, pure fury filling his eyes. "I think you need to learn that nothing you do will change this because nothing I did changed it for Anthony! He still suffered and I had to listen to him cry and scream for me and I couldn't do anything! I think it's only fair that you have to experience the same thing. Oh, and don't worry, I still remember every single thing that was done to him and I'm going to make sure that I repay each torturous thing they did to him tenfold on your boy!"

Turning back around, he pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the cuff around Spencer's left wrist. He didn't even give him a second to move, lest he try to fight back, before he firmly placed his foot against his shoulder and pinned it to the wall. Rossi realized what he was about to do a second before he had actually done it. All he could do was yell out for him not to do it before he roughly pulled the kid's arm by his wrist until a sickening pop filled the room.

Reid cried out in agony and more tears slipped down his face. Rossi's own eyes began to burn with unshed tears when the genius started retching. Nothing but blood and saliva came up, but it was still horrible to watch anyway.

Samuel jammed the kid's arm back into the cuff and he cried out once again, the bone and it's joint almost audibly grinding together with the effort. Spencer drew in gasping breaths, thin and pain-filled from the broken ribs on their own. Samuel turned and headed towards the door saying something about "getting supplies", which couldn't mean anything good, but stopped to swiftly slam his fist into Reid's hand for what just seemed like kicks. The sound of a finger or two breaking added to Rossi's mental soundtrack of "Reid being tortured for no good reason". No yell of pain accompanied the sound though, just a heart wrenching moan that was somehow worse than the yells. Samuel just smirked in a pleased way as he slammed and locked the door behind him.

God, Rossi didn't think he had ever wanted to kill an Unsub so much in his life.

"R-rossi!" Reid stuttered out over a sob that broke Rossi's heart even more than the entire situation already had. It didn't seem like there was any particular reason he was calling out either, he just seemed to be seeking any sort of comfort even if it was just saying his name.

"Hey kiddo, I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere," Rossi said softly, lowering his voice to hopefully soothe the beaten kid across from him.

"H-hurts. E-everything hurts," he whimpered, sounding all of about five-years-old. A five-year-old with a stuffy nose since the break was making him talk like he had a cold. In any other situation, it would have been comical. He actually felt physical tears well up in his eyes then. Why did the world decide that this sweet genius was going to be its own punching bag? Would it really be so hard to let him have some happiness? When they got out, because they _would_ get out if it was the last thing Rossi did, he swore to himself that he was going to do everything in his power to make sure that every Unsub they came across from then on knew that Reid was _freakin' off limits!_

"I know _bambino_. I'd do anything to make it go away and I'm so sorry you're here because of me. You didn't do anything to deserve this, but I'm going to get us out of here, okay? I swear." He just hoped to God it was true. He didn't want to lie to the kid but giving him some sort of comfort trumped a fib any day in his book.

"It's n-not your fault," Reid said quietly after a moment. Rossi winced and hoped that the kid hadn't seen it. The entire thing was his fault and Reid still wasn't blaming him. This was the one time that he wished Reid would stop being so damn compassionate and understanding and just blame him. He would rather see anger in Reid's eyes, even if it was directed at himself, than the sad, pained expression he was currently seeing. None the less, he didn't want to get him riled up there of all places, so he decided to appease the kid.

"Let's not talk about that right now. Right now, we need to think about how we're getting out of here." Reid gave a minute nod in agreement, even the small movement causing him to grimace.

"The team will find us," Reid said softly.

Rossi couldn't bring himself to burst the kid's bubble. The team was good, but they weren't magicians. They would need time to track them down and they couldn't have been gone more than a few hours, a day at the very most. He knew from experience that the likelihood of the team finding them before Samuel finished his ritual with Spencer were slim to none and even then, who knew where they were. They might not even be in Virginia anymore.

"Of course they will, but we still need a game plan just in case. First, we need to finish our profile."

"He obviously wants revenge on you. Maybe you should start by telling me why? Or maybe where you know him from?"

Rossi sighed, but knew that the question was bound to come up at some point. It wasn't like he had been hiding it seeing as the chance to talk hadn't exactly presented itself thus far, but he didn't particularly want to talk about it either. Cases involving children were always horrible, but that particular one was different. The things their Unsub had done to those kids, the final kid being Anthony Ferris, had imprinted themselves into his mind and he could remember in perfect detail each thing and recognized that Samuel was repeating them on Spencer. Spencer was a gifted profiler; he would pick up on what was happening as soon as he told him about the case, and he didn't want him to know. Sometimes, ignorance really was bliss.

He knew what came next; he simply didn't have the heart to tell the already beaten kid that it was going to get so much worse. He just kept praying to whatever God or Gods were out there that something would come to save them, to keep his kid alive and away from all of the pain in their current room.

"We were investigating a case in this tiny town in Arkansas, Springs something, I think,"

"Eureka Springs," Reid said quietly, quickly trying to cover up a grunt of pain as he shifted his head a bit to get more comfortable, or as comfortable as one can get on a rough dirt floor. Choosing to ignore both the statement and the grunt, Rossi went on as quickly as he could so he could get it done and over with, not to mention that Samuel could arrive back at any moment.

"Anyway, our Unsub was abducting duos: a husband and wife, a sister and brother, an aunt and a niece, and finally a dad and a son. He would torture and kill the female or whichever person was younger while the companion had to watch. Only after days would he finally shoot the one he had been torturing in the stomach and make the other watch as they slowly bled out and died. He then drugged the companion, dumped them on the side of the road, and left them with the knowledge that they could do nothing to save the other in the end and had came out physically unscathed while the other died. The father/son duo were Samuel and his son, Anthony Ferris. They were the last set taken, but we didn't get there in time. I didn't get there in time and Anthony died in his father's arms. He was only nine," Rossi trailed off quietly, staring at the floor in shame, not able to meet Reid's eyes. However, noticing that it was eerily quiet, Rossi stopped his story and eyed Reid carefully but found that the young doctor's chin was resting on his chest with his eyes sunken and closed, his chest moving in a harsh, irregular pattern.

Fear took hold of him. No, it couldn't be happening, not like this. Reid couldn't die, he wasn't supposed to die. Rossi was supposed to protect him, to take care of him since Samuel seemed so keen on putting him in the position of the father. He had never felt such panic like he did right then in his entire life but immediately berated himself. He was a federal agent for God's sake! He needed to act like one. And besides, the kid was still breathing, which meant he was alive. Even that logic didn't stop him from desperately crying out for the kid to wake up.

"Reid! Reid wake up! Come on kiddo, I need you to let me know you're okay." _Or as okay as you can be_ , he added silently. "Please Spencer!"

And that did it. Because they hardly ever used each other's first names and when they did, especially in the tone Rossi just had, it was dire. Like _Answer me right now Spencer because I'm afraid that the closest person I've ever had to a son is about to choke to death on his own blood and I can't do anything but watch_ dire.

He didn't get a great response, but the Italian would take what he could get. Reid rolled his head slightly to the left, a mumbled moan escaping his lips along with a wet cough that splattered more specks of blood on his lips and had Rossi cringing in sympathy and fear. His eyes only rolled under their lids, but it was enough to let Rossi know that he was at least partially conscious.

"Come on _cuiccolo_ , I need to see your eyes. I know your so, so tired, but I need to know that you're still with me," he begged. That was the second time he had unconsciously let an Italian term of endearment slip through. Somehow though, they both just felt right when he was talking to Reid, especially in his current state.

Just as the boy's lids were beginning to hesitantly flutter open, the door to their personal Hell opened once again. Samuel was back from his little "supply run" and it seemed that his eyes were almost giddy with excitement. It was absolutely sickening.

"Well, I hope you guys didn't miss me," he said sarcastically while he went about setting up his device. Rossi's stomach rolled with fear for Reid. In his anxiety, even his analytical brain couldn't call up the mental list of torture that had been inflicted on young Anthony in order to know what was coming, though he wasn't even sure he wanted to know.

But when Samuel stepped away in the direction of Reid, the next item on the list hit Rossi smack in the face and his heart about stuttered to a stop in his chest for the hundredth time since they had been there. Even though he wasn't exactly an expert in torture devices, he knew what that particular one was used for.

Samuel proceeded to crouch down in front of Reid and roughly slap him so that his head bounced to the side and his eyes opened halfway with a soft moan.

"Wakey, wakey Dr. Reid, no sleeping right now," he said in a soft voice. Rossi would have thought he was merely a father waking his little boy up for school if he couldn't also hear the underlying malice and hatred in that same soft voice.

He pulled the same key from earlier out of his pocket and unlocked both of the kid's hands, but it was clear he was in no shape to put up a fight. His eyes had fluttered shut again and another stream of blood was leaking out of his mouth.

"Hey!" Rossi called. He had to do something because he didn't think he could physically or emotionally watch Reid be tortured any longer. Samuel was trying to break him and mirror his own pain, Rossi knew that, but he was sure doing a damn good job of it.

"Let him go. I know you want me to feel your pain but trust me, I already do. I understand now, Samuel, and that's what you wanted right? For me to truly understand how you feel? You don't need him anymore so let him go. If you want to keep torturing someone, fine, torture me, but now I know Samuel. _Just. Let. Him. Go._ "

Samuel threw back his head and laughed, not saying anything, just shaking his head like Rossi was a misbehaving child. He scooped Reid up in his arms and carried him over to the corner where he had set up his little station. The genius didn't protest except for another weak, wet cough. Mentally adding renewed physical strength to his profile of Samuel because the kid survived off of nothing but coffee and vending machine snacks so, yeah, he was skinny, but he was still 6' 1". Samuel had to be pretty strong to just swoop him up like it was nothing.

He manhandled the kid until he had managed to chain his wrists from a hook in the ceiling. When he let him go and Reid went limp, putting all of his weight on his bad shoulder, the kid jerked awake with a hoarse scream. His eyes flicked around the room wildly until they met Rossi's.

"Calm down Spencer. I'm right here." Calm down? Really? Even in Rossi's own head that sounded stupid. The kid was literally being tortured to death and Rossi wanted him to be calm when he himself was nowhere even near that. But what else was he supposed to tell him?

"Yeah, calm down Spencer," Samuel mocked in a sing-songey voice as he took out a knife and cut away the front of Reid's shirt with one quick swoop. The genius was wide awake now, his eyes wide with panic as he squirmed in his chains, but it doing nothing nut irritating his broken ribs and fingers, the shoulder, the concussion…pretty much everything. The Unsub picked up a cup of water and splashed it down Reid's chest. He gasped as the cold hit him all at once, his lungs that were currently filling up with blood protesting the action with some more harsh coughing. His brain wasn't exactly running on full capacity, so he was very confused as to why he was wet.

When Samuel picked up the plastic part of a metal rod and turned on a little battery-looking machine, so the rod crackled, he was no longer confused.

Reid called out for Rossi in a voice that was so very scared and tired and hurting that the Italian actually had tears in the corners of his eyes. He blinked and one slid down his cheek because Samuel was going to electrocute his boy and there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop it. He didn't even know if the kid's already busted ribs and lungs could take the further abuse. He could only hope to God that his luck turned around for once in his life.

"I'm right here. Don't look at him, look right at me _bambino_. Just keep your eyes on me the whole time. You're not alone," he called out hurriedly when Samuel picked the device up. Reid met held his gaze with tired eyes, but Rossi could see just a hint of his usual stubbornness underneath all of the pain. And with one swift motion, he slammed it into the genius' chest.

The scream that ripped from his throat was like nothing Rossi had ever heard before, and nothing he ever wanted to hear again. The boy's entire body tensed up, all of the muscles going taut under the electric current. His eyes were clenched tightly, and his face was turning red, a stark contrast to the paper-like color it had held before. He continued to scream and eventually tears were streaming down his face, later joined by blood that he gagged up in between onslaughts when Samuel would stop to tease him for a moment.

The entire time, Rossi screamed himself, expletives and crude statements he didn't think he had ever uttered in his life. Tears to match Reid's were streaming down his face, but he made sure to let the kid know he was there with him, even if he couldn't do anything to stop it. In those seconds of relief, he would get the kid to meet his gaze. When he wasn't cursing Samuel and his mother and everything in between out, he was talking to Reid, just saying the same things over and over again. "I'm right here. You're not alone. Look at me. Keep your eyes on me. _Bambino. Cuiccolo_."

Suddenly, as quickly as it had started, it was over. Samuel stepped back with a sigh, admiring his work. Reid hung limply by his wrists, not even acknowledging the agony it was surely putting his dislocated shoulder in. His eyes were only fluttering open and shut softly while a sickening mix of blood and saliva dripped from his mouth, though the blood was coming from other places, too.

Samuel uncuffed him and roughly threw him to the floor directly in front of Rossi. Stepping over Reid's barely conscious form, Samuel knelt in front of Rossi, and to his immense surprise, uncuffed him, though only after carefully holding a gun he had seemingly produced from nowhere to Reid's temple. It was a silent warning for Rossi not to try anything and he got the message loud and clear.

"Agent Rossi, now I believe you. Now I believe that you feel the same pain that I did. That's why I'm going to leave you here to hold him just like I held little Anthony in my arms as he died. Now, they shot Anthony, so it was over in a matter of minutes even if it felt like a lifetime, but I'm not that merciful. Dr. Reid will die eventually if that nasty cough is anything to go by. But you will sit here and suffer knowing that there is absolutely nothing you can do to help him. Only when he is good and dead will I let you go." With this as both his final statement and a silent promise, Samuel stood and strode out the door, firmly bolting it behind him. There was no way they were betting out by hand.

Rossi wasted no time in scooping the beaten kid into his arms once Samuel was gone. He cradled his head in his arms and held his chest against him with a gentleness that he would never have dreamed he could produce. With each shift he made to help Spencer feel more comfortable, he moved with the utmost care, knowing that even the lightest jostles would cause him an immense amount of pain.

Rossi tenderly stroked a clump of sweat-soaked hair from out of the kid's eyes while he whispered, "I'm right here Spencer." With his other hand, he carefully pulled his ruined shirt out of the way in order to get a better look at the electrical burns littering the kid's heaving torso. They were bright red, angry and raw with lighter patches surrounding them.

"Oh _cuiccolo_ ," he breathed softly, tears gathering in his eyes again when his fingers accidentally brushed one of the worse burns and a broken whimper escaped the doctor's lips.

His eyes slowly opened, and he gazed up at Rossi with pain-filled, chocolatey hazel eyes. For a moment, they stared at him without recognition until a little lightbulb went off behind his eyes and tears began to fill them. He clenched Rossi's jacket in a white-knuckled grip and let tears roll down his red cheeks, aglow with embarrassment for letting Rossi see him cry like he was.

"It's okay Spencer, don't be embarrassed," he said softly, knowing exactly what was wrong with him. Even in pain and beaten nearly to death, the kid was still unwilling to let people see him as anything less than okay, absolutely fine.

"H-hurts," was all he uttered, his voice no louder than a hoarse whisper.

Rossi swallowed the lump in his throat but allowed a tear to slip down his cheek all the same. "I know, kiddo, I know." Rossi ran his thumb softly over his bruised cheek and gently cupped his chin in the palm of his hand. A soft sob and a few more tears escaped the younger man when Rossi's thumb passed over his cheekbone and he felt the bone give a little under even the light pressure. So, a cracked cheekbone could be added to the list of injuries, too.

"I'm so sorry Spencer, so damn sorry," he whispered. A sad smile graced his lips when Reid nuzzled into his hand with a small sigh.

"S-still n-not," he was cut off by small cough that flecked Rossi's hand with blood, but he honestly couldn't care less, "F-fault." His eye lids slipped shut again and his body went limp in Rossi's arms, his head lolling towards his chest.

"Spencer! You got to stay awake kiddo, come on now!" He frantically groped the kid's neck for a pulse and breathed a huge sigh of relief when he found one. It was weak and uneven, but it was there. He relaxed back against the wall and pulled the kid just a little tighter to his chest, feeling like he was safer the closer he kept him to his own body.

"Hey, Spencer. When we get out of here, you're going to stay with me for a while so I can make sure you use that big brain and actually listen to the doctor. I know you're going to refuse, but you don't really have a choice. I'll even make you all the carbonara you want," he finished with a quiet chuckle, knowing how much everyone on the team loved his cooking, even Reid.

Of course, his small talk didn't get him any real response and he only ended up pulling the young doctor impossibly closer and crying. It wasn't like anyone was going to see, so he let the tears flow. All the tears he had been holding back for Reid's sake. All the tears he had built up in him from his fear and panic and anger at both Samuel and himself for not being able to get Reid out before it had gotten so bad. He held the kid and cried. At some point he started rocking him like you would a child. When he started, he didn't know, all he knew was that he was still rocking him when Morgan kicked in the door to their prison and his head snapped up so quick the world spun. He had completely forgotten about his concussion in all of the chaos.

Soon he was surrounded by the team and paramedics and it all became too much. There were voices everywhere, some loud, some soft, all of them being nothing but concerned. Someone tried to pull Spencer from his arms and he fought back vehemently until Hotch put his hands on his shoulders and he realized that the people trying to take him were the people that could help him.

It was like the weight of the world had been lifted off of his shoulders when it finally registered in his head that all of the people around him were trying to help and the nightmare was finally over. They were safe.

Hotch kept a hand on hi shoulder as he pretty much guided him out of the room, paramedics with Reid on a stretcher and Morgan right by his best friend's side, in front of them. And right before they loaded the kid into an ambulance, he managed to bend down and softly whisper in his ear.

"See kid, I told you we would get home!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! So here is the much requested sequel to this story! I really wasn't planning on doing this, but I just couldn't say no to all of you! So here it is, I hope you enjoy even if it is significantly shorter than the first chapter!

It was one week before Rossi saw Spencer's eyes once again. One week of surgeries and waiting and anxiety and overwhelming guilt because shit. This was all his fault.

If it hadn't been for him, Spencer and Samuel never would have crossed paths, never would have known of the other's existence. If it hadn't been for him, Spencer wouldn't have been mercilessly tortured by a man who no longer felt remorse. If it hadn't been for him, the kid wouldn't have needed the emergency surgery to repair the punctured lung he had gained from the broken ribs, all of which had landed him on a ventilator.

The team came and went, taking shifts so others could leave to rest, eat, and catch up on work. Each member that left was reluctant in doing so but it made it easier in knowing that someone else was coming into take their place so that their resident genius was never alone. Initially, Rossi had not been a part of this rotation, Hotch claiming that he himself was injured and needed to rest if he wanted to help Reid. Injured! He had a concussion. Compared to the kid, he was in near perfect health. And besides, he had vowed to Spencer that he would see him through the entire ordeal, although the genius had been unconscious and unresponsive at the time, and he had absolutely no intention of letting the kid down after he had already failed him on the most horrendous, horrifying way. Hotch soon came to realize this and begrudgingly allowed him to be in their little rotation though he still fought him tooth and nail to get more rest than the rest of them.

Somehow, Hotch's pleas had gone the opposite direction and Rossi found himself watching over Reid's comatose form more often than anyone else.

It just so happened to be one of the times when he was the only one occupying the doctor's room when said doctor decided to crawl his way back to the land of the living. JJ had left only moments previous to take a breather and no doubt get a Cheetos fix while Rossi sat staring off into space. He had long ago resigned himself to the ever-present discomfort that came with sitting in the dinky plastic chairs for hours on end, so it had become much easier to allow his mind to drift off into its own thoughts without becoming distracted by how uncomfortable he was. He suspected they made the chairs so uncomfortable so people wouldn't stay long and get in the staff's way.

The joke was on them. As the saying went, wild horses couldn't drag Rossi away from his _bambino_.

He was sitting almost perfectly still, allowing the steady tone of the heart monitor and the soft whoosh of the ventilator to calm him. At least those sounds told him that Spencer was still alive. The change in those sounds were what caused Rossi to break out of his almost numb thoughts with a thrill of panic so consuming shooting through his body for the first time since Reid had begun to cough up blood in that horrible place.

The heart monitor picked up from its regular steady rhythm and began to sound a screeching alarm that had Rossi desperately pushing the call button. When he finally took a moment to look over Reid and actually see what was going on, he was stunned to find the kid's eyes open, blown wide with fear. He was choking on the tube down his throat, his body bucking in a weak attempt to dispel the foreign object away. His soft eyes rolled around with panic, finally landing on Rossi's own to which they stayed firmly planted.

The Italian was at his bedside in one step, taking hold of Spencer's hand and brushing some hair out of his face with the other. Reid's chest heaved with quiet rasps, not painful sounding like Rossi remember from the root cellar but weaker, more like his lungs were just tired from the sudden increase in work.

"Shh, it's alright _bambino_. I'm right here; you're safe. Calm down kiddo. Hey, don't do that; it's there to help you," Rossi scolded softly when Reid's nimble hands found their way to the tube extending from his mouth and tried to pull it away.

He kept his eyes firmly locked on Reid's, running a soothing hand through his hair and talking softly to him until his doctor came through the door. He shooed Rossi back and began to check Reid's vitals and write them down on the chart attached to the end of his bed. He then took a pen light out of his coat pocket and shined it in one eye and then the other. Reid cringed away from the harsh light, his pain med-riddled brain no doubt confused on top of the nasty concussion he had received from all of the hits to the head. If looks could kill, Rossi was sure Dr. Jameson would have been dead a long time ago by the hand of every single member of the team.

Admittedly, they knew Jameson was the best surgeon the hospital had, courtesy of some file hacking done by Penelope to make sure her baby genius was in good hands, but that didn't mean they had to like him. If it weren't for the fact that he had the bedside manner of a rock, he was also arrogant, condescending, and impatient, often making the team feel inferior whenever they asked questions that Jameson surely viewed as stupid. It was no different right then when Rossi found himself having to release clenched fists at seeing the doctor's rough treatment of the hurting kid.

"Agent Reid, I'm going to need you to cough so I can get this out of your throat," he said tersely, peeling all of the tape off of his cheeks and maneuvering the tube into an easier position to pull it out.

Reid nodded minutely and coughed, the sound strangled and weak, his lungs voicing their lack of use. As the tube began to make its way up his throat, his coughs became harsher, bordering on a gag, with his face turning tomato red. Rossi winced in sympathy. He couldn't imagine how uncomfortable it had to be or how much strain the intrusion had to put on Reid's battered lungs.

When the end of the breathing device made an appearance, Rossi couldn't help but sigh in relief. Reid gave one more cough, this one much weaker, and all but sagged back down to the bed, clearly exhausted. Jameson made short work of taking out a stethoscope, holding it briefly to the kid's chest, and straightening up once again.

"Everything seems to be progressing as it should. I'll send a nurse to check his vitals later on. If you for some reason believe something isn't right, you obviously know how to use the call button." The last bit of the sentence held sarcasm that made Rossi have the urge to flip him off as he exited the room.

Another weak, raspy cough had him turning his attention back to Reid who was rolling his head around in discomfort. He squeezed the hand that didn't have an IV and jogged out of the room with a whispered promise to be back momentarily. He located the Ice machine just down the hall and filled a little styrofoam cup with the cool cubes. While he waited for them to be crushed down and spit out, his mind drifted to the room down the hall.

Every member of the team had been constantly reassuring him that it hadn't been his fault, that what had happened could have happened to any of them with any number of Unsubs they had put away in the past. He didn't believe them for a minute, of course. Reid had been in that situation because of him, and no one was about to convince him otherwise.

If he were to be truly honest with himself, he was dreading going back into the room. He didn't want to look at Reid in that hospital bed, see the dark bruises littering his face, gaze into those innocent eyes that gazed back at him with a level of adoration that he had never deserved. Without a shadow of a doubt, he knew that Reid didn't blame him, even though he truly wished he would. He didn't deserve Reid's infinite forgiveness. The kid was so good and kind that after everything that had happened, he barely felt fit to be in the same room as him, even less so now that he had woken up.

On the other hand, Reid needed him. He said that he wouldn't leave him and he was staying true to that word. As much as he hated it, they were bonded more than ever because of what they had gone through together; they needed each other more than ever.

So, he snagged the cup up and forced himself to March back to the room and settle himself back down in the seat that had become his home away from home the last week.

"Ro-" Reid rasped the moment he entered the room, but he was cut off by a gravelly cough that had him wincing and lightly running his hand over his chest in pain. His voice was hoarse an rough, barely over a whisper and weak with lack of use, much like his lungs.

Rossi offered him a gentle smile and tried to shove down the guilt and lock it away. Spencer needed him to be strong right now, not so overwhelmed with guilt that he couldn't focus on anything else. "Hang on a sec, kiddo. Why don't you have some of this?"

He carefully spooned some of the crushed ice into Spencer's anxiously awaiting mouth. The genius closed his eyes and sighed softly, the icy cool liquid soothing his dry throat. When every last remnant of the wonderful substance had melted off of his tongue, he cracked an eye open and gazed at Rossi.

"Hi," he whispered.

Rossi snorted softly and gave his hand a small squeeze. "Hi yourself there, _cuiccolo_. How're you feeling?"

Reid sighed and allowed his eyes to slide shut once again. "Like I got ran over by a bus and then put through a meat grinder."

The kid's blatant admission had Rossi momentarily taken aback. He never admitted when he was in pain. The painkillers were probably what had allowed him to speak so freely, but there was no doubt in his mind that Spencer felt just that bad, especially if he was using very Morgan-like analogies rather than his own usually eloquent tongue. It only made Rossi feel all the more guilty.

He gazed down at the standard white blanket issued at all hospitals, looking anywhere but at Reid. Usually, he wasn't one to avoid confrontation. He had always followed the philosophy of getting something done and over with, not beating around the bush and drawing it out for as long as possible. But in his current situation, he was having a hard time even starting the conversation. He didn't honestly even know what he was going to say, or how he was going to say it for that matter.

A weak squeeze from Reid's hand brought his attention back up to the man. He was gazing up at Rossi with big, soft eyes, slightly glassy from the pain meds, but still his own. They held the insane amount of forgiveness in them that Rossi had known they would, and it made him immediately want to look away.

After a moment of awkward silence and staring, Rossi finally decided it was time to man up and just get everything out in the open. He hoped against all hope that Reid would blame him or yell at him or just not say anything, but he knew the kid too well. He knew that he would probably try to twist the whole thing around and make it seem like it was his damn fault, even though he was the one who had just been taken off of a ventilator.

Finally, Rossi turned his gaze back down and sighed. "Spencer-"

"Stop," Reid whispered. Rossi looked up in surprise. He hadn't expected to be interrupted by Spencer of all people. The doctor was too respectful for that.

"Reid-"

"I said stop Rossi!" he said more forcefully, even pushing himself up farther out of the bed. Not that any heat that had been behind it could be taken seriously considering he almost immediately broke off into another coughing fit, but once again, Rossi was surprised. He gently pushed him back down into the bed and fed him another spoon of ice and let him take a moment for the soothing liquid to melt before he said anything else.

"Alright, I'll stop. Just take it easy please. You don't need to hurt yourself any farther."

Reid leaned back into his pillows a little farther, but kept his gaze still firmly locked on the older agent's all the same. "I will not take it easy. Not until you stop blaming yourself for something that was completely out of your control. I'm sure everyone else has already told you the same thing, and I highly doubt that you believed a word of what they said, but here I am telling you. I don't blame you for a single thing Rossi."

Rossi all but groaned. Even though he had _known_ it was coming, he still hated hearing the pure forgiveness in Reid's voice. He didn't deserve it.

"Spencer, if it hadn't been for me, you never would have gotten tortured. You never would have ended up on the ventilator. You wouldn't have almost… _died_ ," he choked out the last word in a whisper, almost like it was a curse and if spoken, would be activated.

"But I didn't," Spencer murmured. It was his turn to cast his eyes downward. That stupid blanket sure was getting a lot of attention.

"Spencer, but you could have! Don't you understand that! You could have and it would have been all my fault." And he broke down. The tears he had been holding back since he had cried over Reid's broken body a week ago in that cellar finally slipped out of the corners of his eyes and down his cheeks. The peculiar thing, he felt no shame for them either. "It would have been my fault."

With some effort, Reid reached out and tilted Rossi's face up. It was almost as if their roles were reversed, the action was so familiar between the two of them from Rossi to Reid when the kid became upset or embarrassed.

"But I didn't," he said once again, a steadfast firmness in his voice that only Reid could possess while having just came off of a ventilator. "Let me ask you something. If you had been tortured by someone I had arrested, would you have blamed me?"

And Rossi knew that answer without having to even think about it for a moment. Of course, he wouldn't have, and Reid knew it too. He had asked it for that exact reason, knowing that once it was said, Rossi's analytical mind would absorb the fact, mull it over, and realize how hypocritical he was being. Rossi had to smirk at that; everything Reid did and said was well calculated with a goal in mind. And he achieved each and every one of those goals with words alone. It truly was a gift that not many possessed. Say what you wanted about how much the genius talked and how awkward he was in social settings, but he really did have a talent when it came to words.

"Alright Einstein, I see what you're trying to do. I can't say I'll stop blaming myself, but I'll try my hardest. Right now, though, you need rest. I can see you fighting your eyelids from here."

A satisfied smile appeared on Reid's face as he snuggled down farther into his pillows and Rossi pulled the blanket up around him. His eyes were already closed, but the smirk was still in place.

"Yes, dad."

Those two words made Rossi's heart swell. He had seen Reid as his surrogate son ever since he had gotten to really know him, but he had never thought that the genius returned the sentiment. Hearing him say it though, even as a joke, made a grin appear on Rossi's face. It was like a wait that had been sitting on Rossi's chest since the moment he had woken up in that cellar lifted off of his chest.

"Damn right, smartass." Even as he said it, he chuckled and ran a loving hand through the doctor's hair one last time.

Moments later, after Rossi had already settled back into his chair and taken his phone out to let JJ know that Reid had woken up, the kid spoke up even after he had thought he was sound asleep.

"I'll be holding you to that carbonara too, just so you know."

All Rossi could do was laugh, a true, full laugh for the first time in a week.


End file.
